DAY 7 - Engineers are weird
03 Jul 2019Cal-L
I didn't read Professor Palin's message when it first arrived, I was over 5000ly out, and there was no way I was going back. Anyway if he is like every other engineer I have met, he wouldn't want to just get on with the engineering, no, he would have some bizarre hoop for me to jump through first, something like 'Get me 50 units of Thargoid Jockstraps, mined from a High Underwear Content World!'I had been trying to contact him ever since I learned he was 'The Man' when it came to engineering thrusters, but he had ignored me totally. In fact if I didn't know better I would think he had just been watching me, waiting until I was over 5000ly away before sending a message offering to help upgrade my FSD. Hmmm! If you wait for someone to travel 5000ly before offering to upgrade their FSD, you've got to have one twisted sense of humour!
Putting aside that engineers seem to be watching, like you're a mouse running around a maze, only willing to contact you when you press the right button, they then want you to visit bearing gifts. What they want in some cases is decidedly odd! I am not talking the credits, gold, painite or combat bonds, running your own planetary base has to be expensive, and who doesn't like a nice injection of cash. I am not even talking about the items that clearly are part of their research, or maybe a relic collecting hobby. I am talking about 25 units of Xihe Biomorphic Companions - Realistic and exclusive animal companions, better than nature and guaranteed to last, except that is a lot of them, so they aren't lasting. That is some extreme furry play Zacariah!
Then there is the galaxy's functioning alcoholic, Didi Vaterman, who needs a staggering 50 units of Lavian Brandy to maintain her habit. I remember as I was offloading another shipment of brandy, and another commander was doing the same, we made that uncomfortable eye contact of two people that know they are doing something decidedly wrong. To be fair for a drunk, she was surprisingly sober, I was even tempted for a moment to have a snoop around before leaving, see if I couldn't solve the brandy mystery, but you know how recluses get when they catch you poking around their Olympic sized brandy pool.
I am over half way on my trip to Colonia, with a new batch of weird engineers to visit. I understand there is one that works on life support and wants occupied escape pods, which is pretty alarming, especially if you consider you don't improve the time you can keeping a person alive on life support, by letting them out of the pod.